Because widely validated and accepted nonanimal alternatives for chemical
casualty management and combat trauma training courses exist, there is no
justification for the use of live animals for these training purposes.

Combat Trauma Training

The U.S. military’s combat trauma training courses teach military physicians,
medics, corpsmen, and nonmedical personnel to respond to the most common causes
of preventable battlefield fatalities, including extremity hemorrhage, airway
compromise, and collapsed lung. Procedures to address these injuries can most
effectively be taught in a course using high-fidelity medical simulation,
partial task trainers, and immersive learning environments.

High-Fidelity Simulation

The most important elements of combat trauma training for military personnel
are realism, human-specific injuries and treatments, volume of trauma exposure,
and team building. Simulators provide the opportunity for trainees to learn to
respond to these injuries using a realistic model of human anatomy and
physiology.

Cut Suit Simulator

The Human Worn Partial Task Surgical Simulator (known as the "Cut Suit") from
Strategic Operations is a training device worn by a human actor. It includes
breakable bones, interchangeable organs, and variable blood flow. Wounds are
created by the user, and the skin and other organs are repairable, allowing for
multiple uses. The Cut Suit combines the sensation of working on live tissue
with the realism of performing procedures on a conscious “casualty.”

SimMan Simulator

Human-patient simulators such as SimMan can be used to teach the core skills
of treating injuries involving breathing, the heart, and circulation. SimMan
is a full-body simulator that is already used in medical schools and
hospitals around the country to teach civilian medical practitioners many of
the same procedures being taught in the U.S. military’s combat trauma
training courses.

Combat Trauma Patient Simulator

The Department of Defense has already demonstrated its trust in simulation
technology. The U.S. Army’s Combat Trauma Patient Simulator combines various
simulation technologies in a course that trains medics to:

Assess and treat battlefield injuries by type and category such as
hemorrhaging, fractures, amputations, and burns

Monitor the movement of casualties on the battlefield

Perform these procedures under duress in a simulated “live fire”
environment

Partial Task Trainers

Many U.S. military training programs use task trainers, simulators which
replicate specific parts of anatomy for training such as intubation or surgical
airway. CHI System’s HapMed limb simulator, for example, is a manikin arm that
provides skills training in which trainees can properly learn and practice
tourniquet application, a crucial procedure given the number of extremity wounds
suffered by service members in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Immersive Battlefield Environments

Simulation is most effective when used in scenarios that replicate the
sights, sounds, and smells of the battlefield. Immersive battlefield
environments are already used by the U.S. military to acclimate deploying
soldiers to the “fog of war.” In these scenarios, soldiers learn to complete
their missions while navigating through smoke, dodging simulated gunfire, and
coping with nearby explosions.

These training sessions must be expanded to include the use of medical
simulators in combat trauma training courses.

Fair Use Notice: This document, and others on our web site, may contain copyrighted
material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owners.
We believe that this not-for-profit, educational use on the Web constitutes a fair use
of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law).
If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use,
you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.